the Lurgy returns, Levon Helm, and off to the Mendocino Coast

• Have been bathing in a pool of my own sweat. Got struck down with the Lurgy that everyone in town has/has had. It is running its course. The sweating is only intermittent now.
  
• Off to Mendocino tomorrow afternoon to go camping with friends from Matty's UC Davis days. Erin will be there! She is game to be my bad girl in crime and to sneak off to the North Coast microbrewery for a pint. Erin has always been so good to Matty and me.
  
• We are picking up a 10x10 Kodiak Canvas tent. I'd bought a cheaper one made of nylon, but decided that with my advancing bad hips, more forays in car camping, and the possibility of more New Zealand bands visiting, I'd better not cheap out. So, I bought a good tent that will last a very long time. Luckily, returning the nylon tent, still unopened in its box, will be a piece of piss.
  
• Saw Scorcese's "The Last Waltz," and Levon Helm ("He can drum, he can sing!") moved me. Somebody once called him the only drummer who could make you cry.
  
• My dear Mutton Birds' English penpal of many years, Spence, finally got to meet Don McGlashan the other day. He and fellow longtime birder Dave were lucky enough to catch Don McG do an impromptu set in Sherwood Forest before the Crowded House show. McG is touring as a member of the CH band. Spence and Dave also got the chance to do an interview w/ McG after the show. I was thrilled for them. They have worked so hard over the years to foster folks' interest in the band and to archive all that is available. Roger King was a star to arrange the tickets, passes, and meeting. Don McG seemed to indicate that there will be a U.S. West Coast tour in the not too distant future. I have cast my lines out for the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, Don McG, and the Phoenix Foundation (folks here still ask after them often). Fingers crossed that I'll know how to set my lines if and when the time comes.
  

International observer

Don McGlashan's set at Crowded House's technically wonderful* show was the best 20-25 minutes I've spent in a while**. The songs were: Winning Numbers, A Thing Well Made, While You Sleep, something referred to by folks in the audience as the Boyfriend Song, Andy, and Anchor Me. His voice was strong, clear, not showing signs of an intense tour. He was cheeky. He was no longer a luddite and his loops worked beautifully. I was moved more than once, I was lucky to see the man perform again, I was lucky to hear the soundtrack to my life live.

I am not a very good stalker.
I am a librarian at heart, a collector and indexer of facts and information.
I am also a keen observer - although you'd never know it by how my mouth sometimes "blah blah blahs" and my arms flap when I should just stand still and smile.

I walk into a lot of situations and suss out certain facts and factors and extrapolate. I can spot certain folks from a mile away. Matt calls this my "Terminator Eye". Bibi has seen me use it more than once.

Tonight, Bibi and I met the lovely Marc who is a VERY BIG NZ music aficionado and a fellow Mutton Birds, Humphreys and Keen, and Flying Nun fan. Marc and I have been sharing "mixtapes" on and off for about 4 years now. We found him with my Terminator Eye. Within minutes of meeting Marc, I zeroed in on a man with a tag flapping on a lanyard. I didn't mean to scare Don McGlashan's manager when he walked by, but I just blurted out "Roger King?" and lo and behold, it was him. He just had cool angular metal framed glasses and a shirt that was a shade of sky blue that nobody from LA wears because they are all wearing black or now, brown.

If I see him tomorrow night, I must apologize for my Glengarry Glen Ross hard sell of Bishop. I just kind of get excited, and it just comes out like a steamroller. Bless, bless, bless Sam Scott of the Phoenix Foundation for doing the advance work for me and for just telling Roger about the show and experience TPF had. Sam did more to sell Bishop than my said blah blah blahing and flapping of arms. I said I could suss out situations. I didn't say I knew how to behave in them.

Roger King said he also manages the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. I oohed and ahhed and flapped my arms at that, too. I had visions of the best time in Bishop, with Lynne bringing along any number of her six ukes and folks really getting into the singalong to "Ziggy Stardust." Interesting times ahead, Inshallah. Hope I didn't kill them with my aggressive geek routine.

I did feel happy wearing my butchy cowboy costume I wear to NZ artists' shows (the "I Love Te Aro" teeshirt, jeans, packer boots). I don't know, I just feel like a tomboy on a mission in my guise- like I am channeling the person I was when I was an optimistic energetic kid. After the surgery, I was not sure if the boots, which weigh nearly 10 pounds for the pair, would need to be retired. Three cheers, they don't.

*As nice and pitch perfect and even spontaneous as the CH show was, I wasn't moved - other than by watching Don McG let his hair down and enjoy being in somebody else's band for once.

**I had a great time at the Over the Atlantic show - really and truly. But, Don McG's all too brief set allowed me to have a few of those experiences when you kind of leave everything you know and exist purely in the moment.